In Hurricane Katrina news, FEMA has broken a promise to reopen four multimillion-dollar no-bid contracts awarded to politically connected companies. Shortly after the hurricane hit, FEMA gave major no-bid contracts to Bechtel, Shaw Group, Fluor and the company CH2M Hill. FEMA vowed to rebid the contracts after legislators criticized the no-bid contracts because two of the companies had close political ties to the White House. The Shaw Group’s lobbyist was Joe Allbaugh. He is the former director of FEMA and a personal friend of President Bush. The CEO of Bechtel, Riley Bechtel, previously served on Bush’s Export Council.